Casualty That Mattered
by MusicalCatharsis
Summary: [DARK FIC]Ronald Weasley was dead. He was the first and the last casualty of the war. And he was the only one that mattered in her eyes. PLEASE READ!


"I remember the day that she disappeared. Harry went into a rage, Ron receded inside of himself, and Draco just laughed. Draco was the heartbroken one. When he realized that she did not plan to come back, he ran off after her. They were never seen again, nobody knows what happened to her. The day was blistering cold as they all moved quickly around Grimuald Place. Preparing for the Final Battle, they liked to say, but I know the truth, they were scared, of themselves, afraid of what they would do if they stood still for more than two hours of sleep. Nobody knew of my betrayal, I helped Hermione leave, but Draco…he was never supposed to go with her. He would die, because I sent Hermione to the Dark Lord." The lines around Minerva McGonagall's eyes wrinkled as she squeezed her eyes shut under her bifocals. "I used to know him. Hell, I used to love him." The tears were flowing down her face freely at the moment.

"We worked so hard to keep Draco away from the Dark Lord, but in the end his love for Hermione, caused him to join the Dark Side right along with her. She was not safe here; we had to send her away. She was carrying a child. There was nothing that we could do to keep her safe except that. No matter if she was put into hiding, someone would find her." She hung her head in shame. "I sent our best witch over to the Dark Side and now we might just lose this war."

The meeting was staring at her in bewilderment. How dare she make such a judgment without consulting the rest of them? Hermione was their one shot at winning the war. She was trained in everything. It hurt less when they thought that Hermione had just walked out on them; never did they realize that she had been forced away from the Order.

"You mean to tell me that Hermione is gone from our ranks because you were scared that she was in danger?" She nodded. Harry banged his fists on the Formica table and cursed loudly.

"She…Hermione…My god, Draco followed her! You sent her out there to the Dark and you knew that he would follow her! She was carrying **his **child for the love of Merlin! I never would have thought that there would be a day that I would say this to you Professor, but how could you be so stupid?" She hung her head in shame again as a lone tear slid down her face. She could not take back time…and Hermione and Draco would have to stay where they are. They would have to stay as his right hand men. Hermione was lost to them ever since she fell in love with Draco. Weather they believed it or not, she would have joined the Dark Side just to save his life. In the end, McGonagall's action caused so many lives lost.

* * *

Hermione Granger stood at attention next to the Dark Lord. Her eyes were glazed over with the protective barrier that she did not let anyone enter; except for Draco and their child. They had built a home from their small bank accounts before joining the Dark Side. Hermione was pregnant and Draco was scared that he would not be let into the circle. He begged her day in and day out to go back to the Order. But Hermione had direct orders that she had to follow. She would not back out on this plan. It hurt her to think of those first few months away from the Order. She felt like she had lost everything, including Draco, but when the baby was born, so was she.

She joined the Dark Lord's ranks three days later and has been climbing the hierarchy ladder ever since. Her chest was puffed out as another person screamed out in pain. The sight before caused her to chuckle softly. She had gone to school with this fool. Still she did not step out of place. Hermione held her chin in the air and continued to watch Terry Boot be tortured. Her body soared with pride at Voldemort. She was not scared of him at all, in fact, once you were as close to him as they are now, he was nice. But…he would not be at your house on Boxing Day, or Christmas, because he hates family affairs.

"Get up Boot!" Voldemort hissed. The scrawny man removed himself from the floor and brushed off his robes and then stepped back into place. Hermione watched as the Dark Lord's features contorted into a grimace. Something about his look did not please her and she looked to Draco. Then it hit her, they had not initiated any new people, but in the back stood a row that should not belong there. How could she have missed it? Slowly she turned her body to walk towards the back, along with four other lieutenants. She walked slowly; checking people's uniforms, not one of them pulled their hoods off. She reached the back of the hall and stood behind one of the five people that should have not been there.

Quickly, with the reflexes of a man who played Quidditch, she wrapped her arm around the person in front of her and pulled off the hood. Long red hair flowed down her arm and she groaned. She knew who this person was even without looking into their eyes.

"Ginny, you shouldn't have come here. I have to torture you know." She sighed and dragged the younger girl to the dungeons. All five of them were thrown into a cage at the end of a long and damp hallway. She looked into the cell and sighed. Turning to the other four of her companions, she signaled all of them to leave besides Draco. It was then and only then that they let their guard down. Hermione stared at her old friends, the people that she had once called family. She did not know them anymore. She looked from each face to the other. Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, and Fred, all of them staring at her with disgust. She turned her head away from them and looked at Draco. He moved to stand by the stairs and keep a look out. She cast a spell to allow some screams to filter through without actually torturing them.

"I never asked for this." She muttered to them before she walked around the cage. They all were staring at her. She had wanted nothing to do with the Dark Side, but now that she was in, she could not get back out. No matter how hard she tried to ignore it, she loved the feeling that she could be part of the Dark Side. She was fighting against her people, but her family was safe. "I cried in front of McGonagall for three hours and she still did not change her mind. We all worked so hard to keep Draco from becoming a Death Eater, and look at him now. He is exactly where we do not want him to be." She looked into Fred's piercing eyes. He smiled and soon after she followed. Reaching into the cage she touched his cheek. It was rough with stubble and caked with dirt. "How's George?" she asked remembering the day that he lost his legs. She allowed herself a tear.

Fred nodded and she continued around the cage. "Fred lay on the ground and twist and squirm and then cast a charm to make yourself bleed. It will be saving your life." He obeyed. She looked into Luna's round brown eyes. She sighed and shook her head. "How is the Quibbler doing?" Luna stared at her in disbelief.

"Your people ruined the building." Hermione was taken aback at the way Luna spit the words out at her. She had dared to talk back to her with venom dripping from her voice. Hermione raised her wand and was about to torture her for real when she turned to Neville. She smiled at him and touched his shoulder length brown hair. He leaned into her touch and looked at her with wide eyes. "Luna, do the same as Fred. How is your grandmother?" She asked him and he smiled sweetly at her.

"She is fine Hermione."

"Protecting her was the last bit of Good Magic I did." She turned her attention from him to Ginny. The girl was looking at her with something short of pity in her deep blue eyes. Ginny reached out her hand and Hermione took it.

"How's Harry?" She asked numbly. Ginny stared at her. "Tell him that I love and miss him." Hermione pocketed her wand and continued walking. "Ginny, do the same as the others, you too Neville." The obliged, finally she came to a stop in front of Ron. She wanted to hug him and she signaled him forward. She placed her arms through the bars and enveloped most of him into her body. She sucked in the same scent that she remembered from when they were children.

"I never wanted to be on the Dark Side." She muttered to him. "But this is where I must stay until the war is over. I was sent here on orders from McGonagall, and I will come back to you guys soon. I promise. Do as the other's Ron." She stated coldly before walking over to Draco. She looked into his eyes and smiled. When in the home of Voldemort, one does not ask for comforting and one does not comfort. They just stared at each other.

Voldemort glided down the stairs and looked at Hermione. He no longer tried to pry into her mind. He trusted her fully, like he trusted Draco. Voldemort never trusted anybody. He looked at the five on the floor, out of breath, and bleeding. He turned to them both and smirked.

"Modify their memories and let them go." They nodded and Hermione walked over to the cell. She pointed her wand at the wall and muttered "Obliviate." Five times. She looked at them and unlocked the cell.

"Like I said, I'll be back soon." They looked at her and didn't believe what she said. Slowly they walked out of the cell and ran from the dank room to the door leading to the outside. Draco walked up behind her and looked at her.

"Meeting is over." He muttered before clutching her arm and apperating to their home.

* * *

Ginny stood rubbing Harry's temples as Ron told the story for what seemed like the millionth time. She had already cried, been angry, broken things, been silent, and finally she was comforting Harry. The fact of the matter was that the five of them all believed that Hermione was in too deep to want to get out of the Dark Arts.

"For the love of Merlin: Voldemort smiled at her! He fucking smiled at her! She's not our Hermione anymore." Ron stood near the window and in an instant his face turned red as did his hand. The glass shattered, cutting his hand and almost severing a vein. He was hurting, he had loved Hermione for so long, and just when he thought he could have her, she was with Draco. He could not have Hermione even if he tried. Ron sank to his knees and placed his head in his bloody hands and cried. The sight was dismal to Hermione as she stood in the foyer of Grimuald place. Draco was outside waiting for her in the car. Slowly she walked over to the blubbering bloke and wrapped him in her arms.

"Shh…no need to cry." She muttered. Then she looked up into Harry's emerald eyes, they were the same color as the engagement ring on her finger. "Hogwarts tomorrow, minimal attack, three hundred people should cover our one hundred fifty." Harry nodded and walked out of the room. When he reached the door he turned back to Hermione and looked into her hazel eyes.

"Sometimes…I wish that you had just walked out on us." He muttered while shaking his head. She almost cried, but that was so unlike her right now, that she could not. She glanced at his unruly hair that was laced with gray. She sighed and healed Ron's hand. Picking up his face in her she placed her lips against his before standing up to walk over to her.

"I do not want to see any of you out there tomorrow. I've never had to fight you in a battle and I do not plan to. I have never killed…believe it or not." With that she was gone just as fast as she had arrived.

"Ron…" Ginny began but he held a hand up to silence her.

"I don't want to hear it, she tasted evil, wrong, but so damn good." He grabbed her cloak and walked out of the house. That night he visited Lavender and shagged her until she begged him not to. After that he held her and she cried in his arms. Hermione was on his mind and she knew it. Hermione was always on his mind when he handled Lavender that way.

"What do you want from me Ron?" she asked quietly tracing circles on his chest. He looked down at her and shrugged.

"I don't know…why do you ask?"

"She is not coming back." Lavender stated and Ron's body went rigid beneath her.

"You're not treading lightly, Lav." He warned.

"A woman knows when you don't love her. She can see it in the man's eyes. You love her but she is not coming back. She is married, has a child, a life, one that doesn't involve you." Slowly he extracted himself from her embrace and dressed himself. She lay still in the bed not saying a word.

"You're wrong." He muttered before walking out of the door.

* * *

Hermione stood with her child in her hands. She knew, in the back of her mind, that two was too old to still be holding a child, but she did it anyway. Draco held the other child in his arms as the placed them in their own beds. Slowly Draco pulled Hermione into his arms and kissed the top of her head. Nobody but them and Voldemort knew that they had given birth to twins. They smiled at the children before retiring for the night. Tomorrow would hold to be fatal for one of the lives that preoccupied Hermione's mind.

"Mommy? Daddy?" A little girl muttered as she crawled in-between the two of them. The little boy soon followed. Hermione laced her fingers through Draco's over their children's sleeping forms.

"Goodnight Draco. Goodnight Meredith." Hermione reached over and grabbed Draco's hand. She placed it on her stomach, asking him for another baby. He nodded his head and whispered "Tomorrow." She kissed his gingers and fell asleep. Anybody who would have witnessed this display of emotion would never have suspected what their jobs were. Sometimes it made Hermione sick to have to steal all of people's possessions after they had been killed by one of her peers. She wanted to cry at times, but the look on her children's face allowed her to go back to the wrong side each and every day. If she did not then surely she would die and then where would her children be?

Draco woke shortly as Hermione's rhythmic breathing filled his ears. He sat and watched her chest rising with each breath like he always did since he realized that they were never safe. So many people wanted to kill them and it hurt him so bad. He placed his head in his hands as he remembered exactly what had happened before she walked out of the Phoenix Headquarters. It had taken him so long to get those people to trust him, but when she walked out of the house, he had followed her because she is who he is loyal to.

He saw the shadow before the person arrived at the door to his bedroom. There was only two people who could get into his home after hours and that was Voldemort and his mother. He dreaded a late night visit from them both. When it happened to be the family cat Shadow, he smiled and continued to look at his wife. If you had told him ten years ago that he would be happily married to Hermione Granger with two children, plans for a third one, and a family cat. He would have laughed in your face and suggest that you go to the Hospital Wing to get your head looked at. But…now…as he sat looking at her with a slight smile on his lips…he knew that this is where he belonged. He only wished that they could stop fighting for the Dark Side and get back to where they belong.

* * *

It was raining the next morning, droplets the size of bullets. They were droplets made from the tears from all those that had been killed during this stupid war. Hermione awoke and took the children to Headquarters and set them up with toys and games along with all the other children. She looked from each of her babies and she began to play. She ruffled their dirty blonde hair and stood to leave.

"Take care of each other." She muttered to them before walking out of the room. She locked it behind her, not knowing if she was going to see her children again. A small tear escaped her tight eyelids as she apparated to the grounds of Hogwarts. She knew that today was what it came down to. She had purposely told Harry to be there and waiting for them. She was done with this life; but in the end, she always returned to it. She was not destined to be on the Light Side; she understood that now.

With one loud crack, which could be mistaken as lightening, Voldemort arrived and the battle began. She worked by Draco's side and in front of Voldemort until the very end, when she would have to depart and let Voldemort try and kill Harry. It was sad to her because she knew that she could stop this madness. She allowed the fighting to continue. In the distance she saw one of her own throw a curse at George and her heart clenched in pain as his body went limp in his wheelchair. Fred would never laugh again. Of all the days to be hit with bittersweet irony. The pain in her chest was causing her to stop breathing. She wanted to break down and cry as she witnessed more of her peers falling around her. Casually she performed a defensive spell and was about to cast a follow up spell when she was pushed out of the way.

Draco's body landed on top of Hermione's as Harry shot curses at Voldemort. He kissed her forehead before walking off to continue fighting. She laid there for a little while longer, hoping that the world would open up and swallow her whole. It did not and she picked herself up from the ground, the October sky boomed above them, as they battled. She killed her own dorm mate. Parvati was just in the way and she was about to kill Hermione. Then the next person loomed into her line of sight. She groaned and looked into the pale face that belonged to Lavender Brown.

"You killed him the day that you left." She whispered to Hermione, who in turn gave her a look of confusion.

"What are you on about Lavender?"

"How dare you use my name?"

"That's what civil people do."

"You are anything but civil. Look at you Hermione Granger, you have the Dark Mark and you are loyal to Voldemort. You should be ashamed of yourself." Hermione looked at the girl in front of her and chuckled sadly.

"I am going to enjoy killing you." She muttered.

"Likewise." Hermione pointed her wand at the woman's protruding chest and mutter a Dark Spell. The woman fell to the ground and Hermione watched quietly as she squirmed. Her insides were deteriorating and there was not a damn thing that Lavender Brown could do about it. It was when the girl's eyes slowly dissolved in her eye sockets, Hermione turned and pointed her wand in the air.

"Mosmordere." She yelled. The Death Eaters cheered but then a large boom was heard at the top of a hill. All fighting ceased as each and every head turned towards the battling duo. A silver cage had formed around them, and Harry had Voldemort backed into a corner. Harry shot spell after spell at the man before killing his snake.

"Number six is dead!" he yelled to the Phoenixes. They cheered and then Harry turned his wand back to Voldemort.

"AVADA KEDRAVA!" he roared. The green light blinded all who had been looking at the hill. No one knew who had cast the curse or who had died. All of the followers got on their knee and hung their head. They sat and waited for the green smoke to filter through with the winds and the rain. After twenty minutes of waiting, Hermione saw a body carrying another body down the hill. She ran to them both. Draco was holding Harry in his arms. Draco took off his robes and looked to Hermione. She did the same but her heart was breaking. Once the robes were off of her body she turned to find Ron and Ginny standing with a blubbering Fred. Hermione walked towards them and placed her hand on Fred's cheek. It was smooth this time.

"He's watching over you now."

* * *

Draco carried Hermione into the bathroom after retrieving their children. He washed her body diligently as she slept. She had spent most of the afternoon crying over Harry's body in St. Mungo's. McGonagall welcomed them back into the Order and told Draco to take Hermione home. He was more than willing to oblige. He wanted to be there to comfort his wife. After the bath he placed one of his T-shirts on her body and laid her down on the bed. He covered her with the blankets and then went to clean the children.

"Draco, Meredith." He whispered down the hall. They were staring at the people walking by the house.

"Daddy who are they?" They asked in unison pointing at the strange people.

"They are people who are happy because they no longer have to fear for their lives. Bath time!" He explained and then took their hands and led them to the bathroom. It was an hour until the twins were bathed and in bed, sleeping soundlessly. He then washed himself and placed all of their clothes in the incinerator, that he crawled into bed and held his wife's body to his. She was shaking, with fear, anger, or tears, he did not know. He kissed her forehead. She relaxed in his arms.

"I'm here love. Nothing will harm you ever again."

"Draco?" she asked after a thoughtful silence. "Is it wrong to miss him?"

"Miss who love?"

"Voldemort."

"I do not know."

They slept. Finally, he could sleep and not think about Voldemort killing them all while they slept. Life returned to the way it was before they left for the Dark Side. She woke up next to him with a smile.

* * *

The next morning they all dressed and ate quickly. Harry was coming home from the war and was dying to see the twins. Hermione presented them both with such glowing pride that Draco could not wait until he could give her another set of twins. Or maybe even triplets. He grinned wickedly as the twins ran off to play with Harry and Ginny, who were expecting, and kissed her neck. He stopped when he saw Ron glaring at him wickedly. Hermione went rigid in his arms and walked over to Ron. She grabbed his shoulders and pulled his large body into hers. He sobbed immediately and it hurt Draco to see him like that. Draco walked over and clapped him on the back. He looked into Draco's eyes and saw that he in fact did love Hermione.

"Take care of her mate." Ron whispered to him before handing Hermione back to Draco and walking out of the doors. He was never seen again. But a few years later, when the Daily Prophet picked up on Muggle Killings, strangely all with blonde hair, they knew that it was Ron. He had finally found a way to deal with his anger. Hermione didn't feel the least bit guilty when he came to their home one night. She was standing in the living room wearing one of Draco's oxford shirts, the only ones that would cover her protruding belly, and looked Ron into the face. She reached out to trace his hard jaw line. And then she smiled.

"Do you understand why I stayed on the Dark Side that entire time?" Ron nodded. She reached up and pecked his lips lightly.

"Enticing isn't it?" He nodded again before pulling out his wand and heading down the hall to their bedroom. Hermione understood what he was doing and ran after him.

"Ronald Weasley! Stop it right now! Draco!" Her husband was up and had his arm around Ron's neck before he could blink.

"We're evil just like you Ron, but we don't go around killing people with red hair. Killing is fulfilling isn't it?" He asked Ron who just stared at the two of them. And then he understood. The baby growing inside Hermione was the one. It would be the next Dark Lord. He reached out and touched the belly. The baby, sensing that he was evil, kicked. Ron threw his head back and barked out laughter. He had not made a sound in three years.

"You killed me the day that you walked away Hermione. You were slowly killing me by being with Draco. But you killed me that day. Just the way you killed Lavender. From the inside out. You are truly evil to the core." He turned and left. The papers were alight with news the next day.

Ronald Weasley was dead.

He was the first and the last casualty of the war. And he was the only one that mattered in her eyes.


End file.
